Amazon poised to leapfrog Microsoft in market value

Amazon is set to surpass the market valuation of Microsoft after the online retailer’s stock market valuation closed higher than Microsoft for the first time on record.

A week of turbulence on Wall Street has seen Amazon emerge less badly scathed than others with a 1.14% decline bringing its market capitalization down to $690.4bn, just ahead of Microsoft’s $690.3bn valuation following a more precipitous 1.83% drop.

Global markets have been rocked by fears that a period of unprecedented growth may now be at an end. However Amazon has largely ridden out the storm on the back of an impressive set of quarterly results, in marked contrast to Microsoft.

That disparity saw Amazon stock actually rise by 3.8% over the past three sessions to Tuesday, while Microsoft slumped 3.1% over the same period.

Over the past year Amazon has surfed a wave of rampant retail and cloud computing growth, which have contributed to a 77% increase in its share price over the past year, far ahead of an equivalent 42% rise at Microsoft.

Amazon still has a way to go if it wishes to dethrone Apple and Alphabet however, with both companies carrying a market capitalization of $819bn and $736bn respectively.